198 CARL BOVALLIUS, AMPHIPODA HYPERIIDEA. I. 2. HYPERIID.E. 



Hyperia fera. 



Hyperia fera is one of those species of Hyperia which must be regarded as im- 

 perfectly known at present, and the description of Dana is very short and incomplete. 

 Also the figures, which are usually so satisfactory in his splendid work, are in this case 

 on a small scale and give few details. Still I think that the animal in question is a true 

 Hyperia; on the other hand I am not sure that I am right in placing it just here 

 between Hyperia agilis and H. bengalensis; because nothing is known about the special 

 structure of the first two pairs of peraeopoda. The characteristic given by Dana in his 

 diagnosis, »segmentis anticis paulo indistinctis», suggests the suspicion that Hyperia fera 

 might possibly be more closely related to any one of the last ten species which are characte- 

 rised by two or more pergonal segments being coalesced, but as the drawing shows seven 

 pergonal segments I am bound to place the species among those which have all the peraeonal 

 segments free. From all the preceding species it is however distinguished by the length 

 and slenderness of the last five pairs of peraeopoda, and by the length of the uropoda, and 

 also by the great length of the head. From the following species, Hyperia bengalensis, 

 Giles, it differs by the shortness of the first two pairs of peraeopoda, and from H. sibaginis, 

 Stebbing, by the first and second pergonal segments being almost equal in length. 



The Latin diagnosis of Dana runs: 



»Thorax tumidus, segmentis anticis paulo indistinctis. Caput fronte rotundatuiu. Antennas 

 ferine corporis longitudine, lmae paulo breviores. Pedes 6 postici suba?qui, coxa ad apicem ro- 

 tundata, ungue dimidii tarsi longitudine. » 



Here follows the short description given by Dana. 



»Head about one-third of whole cephalo-thorax. 



Pigment of eye, deep brownish red nearly black. 



Third joint of base of inferior antennce oblong, two preceding short. 



First pair of legs smaller than second pair. 



Cilia? of natatory legs as long as the lamella? to which they are attached." 



Spence Bath in 1862 only gave of Dana's diagnosis without further remark. 



